4. Preparedness

4.10. Emergency Management

Emergency Management

Successful implementation of this model relies on partnership and integration with emergency management programs within a hospital. These programs are responsible for disaster mitigation preparation, response, and recovery.

By integrating behavioral health into emergency management, hospitals can avoid the following common pitfalls:

    • Siloing, which leads to unmet needs and duplicated efforts
    • Failure to incorporate pediatric behavioral health considerations, which leads to poor behavioral health and general response/recovery outcomes

This section will outline considerations and intersections with a facility’s emergency management program. The Pediatric Disaster Behavioral Health Framework, and supporting tools, can be adapted and implemented within these programs to meet the local needs of the community. 

Use the prompts below to identify starting points for collaboration with your emergency management program.

Program-Wide Considerations

  • Define the organization’s mission and target capabilities for pediatric disaster behavioral health.
    • Reference the Pediatric Disaster Behavioral Health Framework’s goals and functions as a primer of potential capabilities and mission scope. 
    • Clarify whether the agency’s role is limited to internal operations or includes serving as a community leader or facilitator.
  • Identify how the framework will be adapted and/or implemented by the facility or jurisdiction in preparedness, response, and recovery activities.
    • Determine what support the emergency management team can provide for integration and development of pediatric disaster behavioral health functions.
    • The Just-in-Time Implementation section of this playbook outlines potential response/recovery structures and processes for consideration.
  • Identify strategies for connecting pediatric disaster behavioral health efforts to the broader community through emergency management.
  • Evaluate how disaster behavioral health considerations are integrated into communication strategies, messages, and partnerships. 
  • See the Communications section for expanded guidance.

Preparedness

Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis

  • Identify where pediatric behavioral health considerations are integrated into the hazard and vulnerability analysis process and define the community’s “risk profile” from a behavioral health perspective.
  • Assess internal vulnerabilities due to behavioral health impacts and evaluate how these may affect both day-to-day and disaster response operations (e.g., staff wellness, strain, absenteeism).

Planning, Training, and Exercising

  • Evaluate where pediatric behavioral health is or should be represented in the agency’s emergency/disaster response plans.
  • Review these plans to determine the last time they were updated and exercised and when the most recent training occurred.
  • Explore opportunities to incorporate pediatric behavioral health considerations into existing emergency management trainings and exercises.
  • Provide adequate training to prepare staff to conduct identified pediatric disaster behavioral health functions.
    • This will depend on the intended mission of the agency but may include things such as training on disaster behavioral health competencies, trauma-informed care, de-escalation training, and so forth. See the Resource Catalogue for training resources. 
    • Consider the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Pediatric Disaster Response and Emergency Preparedness course (16.00 Hours).

  • Assess whether the organization participates in Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) #6 and #8 and is integrated into relevant local jurisdiction and state plans.


Organizing and Equipping

    • Verify whether teams are assembled and resources are prepared to implement the strategies described in the plans.
      • For example, does the organization have a staffing model to support a family assistance center and the associated materials?
    • Confirm whether staffing levels or contracted support are adequate to achieve the strategies outlined in the plans. Consider emergency contracts to supplement staffing. 

Response

  • Describe how the agency activates for responses and determine if pediatric disaster behavioral health resources and supports are part of that activation, including how they are triggered.
  • Identify how pediatric disaster behavioral health can support other agency functions (e.g., isolation & quarantine, decontamination, family reunification, staff support, public communications support).
  • Refer to the ICS & HICS integration section for recommendations on response implementation and guidance for integrating into the Hospital Incident Command System. 

Recovery

  • Outline the agency’s approach to recovery for both organizational and community roles and specify where pediatric disaster behavioral health fits into that approach.
  • See the Phase-based Recommendations section for guidance on recovery implementation. 

Mitigation

  • Use risk analysis findings and previous agency responses to identify key ways to increase staff wellness, resilience, and capacity to respond.
  • Define the institution’s role in promoting pediatric behavioral health resilience in the community and identify potential partnerships with existing programs and agencies to support this.

Additional resources and references: